US stocks edge higher as investors eye continued policy support from the Fed

• US stocks edged higher Wednesday as investors eye continued policy support from the Federal Reserve.
• The yield on the US 10-year Treasury note was little changed at 1.485%.
• Bitcoin staged a rebound, clawing back above $34,000

US stocks edged higher as investors eyed continued support for the economic recovery from the US Federal Reserve a day after chairman Jerome Powell eased inflation concerns at a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

Powell at the hearing suggested that he had no fears that prices will see a sustained rise. He did admit that it's difficult to predict when bottlenecks causing supply shortages will ease.

The US 10-year Treasury note was last at 1.485%. On Tuesday, yields fell 2 basis points, responding to the Fed's more tempered policy outlook.

US stocks ticked higher in the previous session with the tech-heavy Nasdaq closing at a record.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Wednesday:

• S&P 500: 4,252.95, up 0.15%
• Dow Jones industrial average: 34,005.38, up 0.18% (59.80 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 14,282.08, up 0.17%

The cryptocurrency space is trying to stage a recovery, with bitcoin climbing back above the $34,000-level after wiping out all its 20201 gains at one point on Tuesday.

Still, some institutions, the Bank for International Settlements, believe bitcoin is a speculative asset rather than a currency - and is often used for criminal activity.

Bitcoin "has few redeeming public interest attributes," the BIS said on Wednesday, in a chapter of its annual economic report. The BIS is an international organization that acts as a central bank for central banks and aims to foster global financial cooperation.

Meanwhile, oil rose ahead of a meeting of the OPEC+ group of producers next week.

The West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 1.04% to $73.61 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, jumped by $1.04% to $75.59 - edging to its highest since late 2018.

Oil prices, in fact, could briefly spike to $100 per barrel in 2022 as demand surges, according to Bank of America.

Gold rose 0.34% to $1,783.65 per ounce.